Boston Tea Party was a momentous event in the history in which, according to estimates, 342 chests of tea were discarded into the Boston Harbor by American Patriots. These chests belonged to the East India Company. The agitators were protesting against the tea tax and monopoly of the East India Company.
The Buildup
The Parliament passed the Townshend Acts in 1767. These Acts imposed duties on products being imported to the colonies. But the Acts were unpopular and had to be scrapped by 1770. There were protests against them and the parliament had to concede to the demands of the protestors. But the duty on tea was not changed. It remained at the same level to earn the colonizers an extra amount of money.
But the traders were easily able to evade the law by dealing with Dutch traders who were willing to supply the tea. The tea by them was smuggled. But in 1773, a new act was passed to support the East India Company that was not doing well financially. The Act stated that the East India Company would have a complete monopoly over all tea exports. There would be no export tax levied on the Company. And, if the Company had a surplus quantity of tea, it would be compensated and refunded for it.
Hence, the tea exported to the colonies was done only through the merchants that worked under the East India Company and the ships that were owned by them. Colonial shippers who worked independently were never involved in the process or decision making.
The anger got rising and several factions joined hands to protest and rebel. Conservative merchants joined hands with people like Samuel Adams who were radicals and tried to sabotage the ongoing trade. Tea merchants all over the country were canceling orders and the sales slumped sharply. But the Governor of Boston at that time allowed three ships to deposit the cargoes they had.
The Party
But Bostonians had other plans. They had planned to sabotage the delivery. Around 60 people assembled and camouflaged themselves with blankets and headdresses and marched towards the ships. They dumped tea chests worth 18000 into the sea dealing a heavy blow to the already troubled East India Company.
The Consequences of Dumping Containers
The British were furious at the rebellion and passed some laws that were intended to punish the Americans. These were known as Intolerable Acts. The laws blocked of dues to the Americans for the amount of tea they had destroyed. The Acts were designed specifically to punish Massachusetts. But the policy backfired and the colonies were united as a result.
Boston was singled out as the place with the strongest resistance to the Colonial rule and laws were being enacted that would punish it for the resistance and fight against colonialism. As a result of the Boston Tea party, the British blocked the Boston Port until the amount that was destroyed was repaid and compensated.
Furthermore, the acts also truncated the status of Massachusetts to a crown colony. A crown colony at that time was governed directly by the British through a military governor. The local elective council was, as a result, also abolished. There was another council put in place that did not involve any locals and was appointed directly by the British.
Any meeting in the town without explicit approval from the Governor was also forbidden. Any British official involved in a crime or offense was allowed to go to Britain for his trial. Even if they committed a crime during law enforcement, they were allowed to move to any other colony for their trial.
A new Quartering Act was passed. The previous Quartering Act expired in 1770. This new Act allowed the British to occupy any uninhabited buildings for housing troops. But in Boson, it was not allowed by the residents. The troops had to stay in Boston Common because the repairing of other buildings was being resisted by the locals.
The fur trade between Ohio and Mississippi was death with by The Quebec Act. This Act took the overlooking of trade away from the Americans and handed it to Quebec. Also, Quebec settlers were welcomed with open arms in areas where there was already a Protestant Population.
But all of these acts did not work as intended. The British had planned to severe Massachusetts from the other colonies resulting from the event in which tea bag storage boxes were discarded. But these policies strengthened the inter-colony bond even further.
